Jurors hear 911 call

In a frantic voice, a man told a 911 dispatcher about gunshot wounds to Phillip W. Smith and attempts to save the 18-year-old after he was shot the night of Aug. 5.

On Tuesday, the tape recording of the call was the first evidence heard by Shawnee County District Court jurors during the trial of Joshua Steven Price, 20, 2008 S.W. 28th. Price is charged with the intentional second-degree murder of Smith; the attempted second-degree murder of Michael Cain, 22; and the aggravated battery of Lucas Hewitt, 19.

Ten relatives and friends of Smith quietly cried Tuesday as they listened to the taped conversation between Smith's uncle, Danny Smith, and a 911 dispatcher.

Jurors heard witnesses testify that the beating of Hewitt by Price and Joshua Rea Dale precipitated retaliation that led to the shooting of Smith, a cousin of Hewitt.

Ricky Greeve Jr., 19, testified that on Aug. 5, he warned Hewitt not to enter Greeve's North Topeka mobile home while Price and Dale were visiting inside because he knew there was friction between the men. Greeve said Price and Dale repeatedly asked who had been outside and that he stalled before telling them it was Hewitt and a friend, Jessica Miller.

"There's our play toy. Let's get him," Greeve quoted Dale as saying. Greeve said Price agreed, and the two quickly left.

Hewitt and Miller had driven to the nearby Wood Mini Mart, 101 N.E. US-24 highway, to gas up Miller's pickup truck when Dale and Price arrived, witnesses said. Dale pulled out a truck window, shattering it, and Price pulled Hewitt from the truck onto the concrete pavement, where Hewitt was punched and kicked in the head and kicked in the back, suffering bruises and cuts over much of his body.

Before the assault, Hewitt said, he had worn a hat, but afterward "it didn't fit because my head was swollen."

After Hewitt was beaten, six friends and relatives, including Smith and Cain, got baseball bats and rode to Dale's house, 1813 N.W. Lincoln, to retaliate, Greeve said.

"I didn't want to go, but I felt like I had to," said Greeve, who drove the group to the home. Greeve said he saw someone with a big rifle in a second-story window of the Dale home. Greeve said others in the car ignored him when he told them about the person with the rifle.